He could change what the team was doing and how effectively they were working, but he could not put on a definitive timeline when the next win would happen. He did not focus on some vague notion of “winning.” He knew that focusing on the basics and perfecting those would lead to success. Once one chooses to pursue the critical work over ego, how does one determine what that work is? Bill Walsh, the coach who took the 49ers from being the worst team in the NFL to the Super Bowl, is a great example of someone picking the critical work. On the other hand, many harmonious and effective people have found that answering the following questions helped them live with purpose: Why do I do what I do? Who am I? What purpose am I serving? The ego loves the comfort a “secure” job has, but purpose, as well as the best things, happen outside of your comfort zone. They drive to a job they hate to pay for a car that brings them to that job, which also pays for a house they abandon during the day to go to that job. They wander around life distracted, looking for the next form of gratification, wondering why they aren’t happy and why they don’t get what they want. Holiday says the first thing you need to do is ask yourself, “why do I do what I do?” If you don’t have an answer to this question, you should take some time to figure it out. Having purpose will help you accomplish life changing work. Three Key Themes From Ego Is The Enemy 1. In addition to these three phases, there are a few major themes running through each part of the book, as well as how people can successfully conquer their ego in each phase. And adversity leads to aspiration and more success. Success creates its own adversity (and, hopefully, new ambitions). As the book says, “Aspiration leads to success (and adversity). These being three phases that one invariably finds themselves in at any given moment, often alternating between them over the course of a life. The book is structured as short essays split into three parts: Aspire, Success, and Failure. In this way the author’s own experiences directed the book he was already contracted to write, and Ego Is the Enemy became: “…the book I wish existed at critical turning points in my own life.” And yet, there they were, imploding right in front of me, one after another.” Their stability-financially, emotionally, psychologically-was not just something I took for granted, it was central to my existence and self-worth. The people I looked up to and trained under.
“These were the people I had shaped my life around. Then, in 2014, Holiday witnessed firsthand the effects of ego as American Apparel, the talent agency, and a relationship with a mentor all simultaneously unraveled:
Within six years, he became the youngest executive at a Beverly Hills talent management agency, advised authors who sold millions of copies of their books, became the director of marketing at American Apparel, built a successful company, Brass Check, and has written for publications ranging from Forbes to Thought Catalog to The Guardian. Ryan dropped out of college at the age of nineteen to apprentice under Robert Greene, author of The 48 Laws of Power. Holiday’s background is as a media strategist. This is the second book in which he draws from the principles of Stoicism while his previous book, The Obstacle Is the Way, focused on overcoming life’s external obstacles. It was a Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, international bestseller, and even has a following among the Seattle Seahawks, Olympic gold medalists, bestselling authors, CEOs, politicians, and many others. Self-centered ambition.”Įgo Is the Enemy, published in 2016, is Ryan Holiday’s fourth book. This book can be an antidote (or at least the beginning of one) to the unraveling that is possible when one indulges ego and loses sight of reality-if you let it: “Not in the Freudian sense,” Holiday says of ego, but ego in the colloquial sense, as in “an unhealthy belief in your own importance. The book Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday is filled with cautionary tales of those who let their egos run amok and were eventually undone by the resulting damage, as well as stories of those who practiced restraint and sobriety, and found success in their endeavors. It is Scylla and Charybdis.” Ryan Holiday It repulses advantages and opportunities. “Ego is the enemy of what you want and of what you have: Of mastering a craft.